After a long Finnish winter, summer is just around the corner, and that means one thing: barbecue season is about to begin.
Directed by Pete Riski, known for his cinematic storytelling with a sharp eye for comedy, and produced by Directors Guild Helsinki, Lidl Finland’s new campaign film sets the tone for the season with an epic yet playful take on grilling culture, inspired by the classic Pied Piper tale. The campaign was created in collaboration with Nord Helsinki and marks one of the first projects between the agency and Lidl Finland.
In the film, one of Finland’s best-known chefs and TV personalities, Henri Alén, steps into the role of the Pied Piper of grills. His confident, feel-good approach to food makes him a natural fit to lead the nation into barbecue season.
Playing a melody that drifts through the nation, he draws grills out of their winter hiding places and sets them in motion, as if they had been waiting all winter for someone to finally fire them up again.
The story begins with a small, yellow underdog grill looking over at a neighbor’s yard, a perspective that gives the film its heart and point of view. What starts as a small, tender moment soon grows into a playful parade that expands across the streets and eventually the whole country, building into a comically epic grill procession. The destination is clear–it is Lidl, the natural home of barbecue season in Finland.
Epic in scale but comedic in tone, the film finds its humor in how something small grows into something unexpectedly large, seen through the eyes of a grill that ends up leading far more than itself.
“It’s a simple but extremely strong concept,” said Riski. “Once we found the tone, everything else followed quite naturally. The humor comes from how the story keeps growing, from the perspective of a classic underdog into something unexpectedly epic. We wanted to keep it playful but told in a very classic cinematic style.”
Supporting the storytelling is a carefully crafted mix of practical effects and modern technologies, including AI-assisted CGI and hybrid methods, used where they best serve the idea. Riski added that the approach was all about finding the right combination of techniques to bring the concept to life.
“For us, it’s never about the tools themselves or getting carried away with technology,” said executive producer Seppo Kerkelä from Directors Guild Helsinki. “Everything comes down to storytelling and what best brings the idea to life.”
Kalle Wallin, creative director at Nord Helsinki, said, “It’s been a great start to our collaboration. There’s a shared ambition to make work that is both entertaining and distinctive, and this project set the tone from the very beginning,”
Summer is a key season for Lidl, which is widely known in Finland for owning the barbecue moment, especially through its Grillmaster range. The brand has built its advertising on humor for years, and this campaign continues that in a slightly more refined and entertaining direction.
The result is a feel-good take on the Finnish summer, bringing people together around the grill, with a bit of fun along the way.
Director Riski is repped by Directors Guild (Finland), Wild Gift (USA), RSA Films (UK), Radke (Canada) and Loveboat (France).
